The robot, charmingly known as HRP-4C, can walk and talk with reasonable aplomb, being able to manage a self-introduction and a saunter which is optimistically described as being “just like a fashion model.”

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The robot may go on sale next year, and is envisaged as being a “walking mannequin”, with sales to department stores hoped for. No likely price is mentioned.

The unit was developed by a governmental robotics lab, under the auspices of the National Institute of Advanced Science and Technology (AIST). It is 158cm tall and weighs 43kg, being capable of operating on battery power for 20 minutes.

Typically, Japanese researchers have obsessed over none-too-practical (but very impressive) bipedal robots, with androids as the distant goal, whilst elsewhere (notably the US) we see a more utilitarian approach which is happy to incorporate all manner of animal and mechanical motion to get the job done efficiently. Clearly, Gundam has much to answer for.

Fortunately, there appears to be a huge market for both.

The obvious next step is combining this technology with the sex doll; Japan leads the world in both technologies, so expectations are high…

This is so creepy! I bet the next step will be to use a robot with implants from real human (like real human hands or at least a lab grown skin tissue).
The day when these robots will be able to go shopping for us will be the day all the otaku in Japan become hikikomori.
Personaly I want them to research Cyborg tech (so that we can cure handicaps).

actually, the definition of a cyborg is any living thing that uses a mechanical means in which to enhance itself, for instance, humans don't have a natural ability to read the time so you wear watches, some people wear glasses to better their vision, others need pace makers to keep their hearts going and so on and so forth...
i guess it really comes down to perspective, while this may seem like a quite literal or lateral meaning, science fiction would have us believe something else entirely...